Testimonial Detail

The SOP Team (Kathryn, Anna and the career-narrative expert) did a fantastic job in helping with my applications. I got into multiple schools and my top choice – Darden School of Business. Kathryn is an extremely dedicated, honest, empathetic and a resourceful person who has decades of experience in helping students reach their potential. I realized, it makes a huge difference to work with advisors who love their job and are truly working to help you put your best foot forward.

Kathryn is one of the best advisors – especially with her knowledge on B-Schools and what ticks in an application. You cannot go wrong working with Kathryn. Check out the other testimonials on how amazing Kathryn and her team is on advisory work, crafting the application, the thorough and structured process, the quick turn-arounds, the career-narrative process and the top-class service overall. While this is exactly what all of us, as applicants, need, I also want to highlight how SOP genuinely supported me and in the process, changed my perspective of the whole application ordeal.

I still vividly remember making the choice to reach out to SOP with exactly 4.5 weeks to go for school deadlines. As is the amazing process at SOP, after my conversation with Kathryn, I spoke to 3 advisors to choose one that I would work with for the next few weeks. The process enabled me to work with Anna, a truly amazing human being, a fellow international applicant who was in my footsteps a few years ago. She has since become a great friend for life. The next 4-5 weeks of crafting applications to 5 schools went through like the best breeze there could be, because mentally I never felt it was just ‘my’ B-school application. Anna spent countless hours – mornings and nights, and at times while she was on treks or in flights – helping me throughout the journey. I can write many pages about Anna’s work but the two things that stood out were how she equipped me with the tools and created agency, and how she was empathetic and had a strong grasp of my values. Many times, Anna would mention a couple of points below an essay prompt alluding to things she believed I could mention about my career/ life/ extracurriculars – have you ever seen an advisor like this?!

With SOP, I had an entire team to help me brainstorm, vet my drafts, my ideas, ask deeper questions in each essay draft and bring out the best side of me in my applications. Truly, to me, the application never felt like work. I’ve heard many applicants say that crafting the applications was a tougher task for them than taking up the standardized tests, but for me (with SOP by my side) it was the total opposite. I had taken the standardized tests multiple times, but after working on my applications with SOP and having conversed with Kathryn and Anna, every single day, I realized my perspective on the application and my test journey had changed – I had immense confidence in what I had to offer. I felt mentally stronger and calmer. I retook the test after submitting my application, and fared way better than the previous few times. A huge relief! I asked for strategies on sharing updated scores and waitlist updates with schools – each time Kathryn and Anna were always by my side, helping me more than I could imagine. I am truly grateful to the SOP team for their work and their presence in my life. I could not have asked for better advisors. I have a lot of respect for the amazing work Kathryn does, the company she has built and the team she has hired – Having seen first hand her commitment to her work, I’m almost certain she never sleeps :). Thank you, team SOP!